Will Obama Try to Blackmail Israel?

President Obama is looking at the fires he lit in the Middle East and North Africa, and desperately hoping to salvage something, anything, from the conflagration before he leaves office. Israel will be pushed to provide at least one "victory."

Iran has come closer to nuclear weapons competence in the past eight years. And Obama's abandonment of dissidents and pro-democracy advocates in Cuba, Venezuela, China, Turkey and Iran paves the way for waves of repression and bloodshed around the world.

It is estimated that more than 17,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2014, four times as many as 2012, after the U.S. withdrew its combat forces. This is a far cry from 2011, when Obama announced the U.S. was leaving a "sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq."

He needs to find a "success." Cue the Middle East "peace process."

As Vice President Biden arrived in Israel this week, word leaked about yet another "peace plan" designed by the Obama administration. There isn't much new in it. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. might support a UN Security Council resolution calling on "both sides to compromise on key issues," and it might involve the Middle East Quartet. Israel would be told to stop building in the territories and recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian State. The Palestinians would be told to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and give up the "right of return" for the original 1948/49 refugees and their descendants.

Just do it and voila! Problem solved.

As Vice President Biden arrived in Israel this week, word leaked about yet another "peace plan" designed by the Obama administration. (Image source: Israel Prime Minister's Office)

Why and why now? Because President Obama is looking at the fires he lit in the Middle East and North Africa, and desperately hoping to salvage something, anything, from the conflagration before he leaves office and needs another job. Israel will be pushed to provide at least one "victory." Consider the list of Administration failures right now and the terrible destruction they have entailed:

In his first foreign visit, President Obama opened the door in Egypt to an uprising not only of "Google people" in Tahrir Square, but also to the Muslim Brotherhood. Brotherhood representatives were front and center at the President's speech in Cairo's Al-Azhar University, to the dismay of longtime ally Hosni Mubarak. After Mubarak's overthrow, the White House pressed for the inclusion of the Brotherhood in Egyptian elections despite its history of terrorism. Since then, the U.S. and Egypt have been unable to find a way to communicate constructively, despite Egypt's increasing closeness to Israel and their joint interest in controlling the terrorist Hamas and Iranian-sponsored jihadis in Sinai.

The Muslim Brotherhood was emboldened in Syria by its successes in Egypt.

The Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS -- both in some measure precipitated by the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq – have killed upwards of 350,000 people (more than 55,000 in 2015) and displaced nearly 4 million more. Chemical weapons, starvation, beheadings and aerial bombing are weapons of choice by various sides. Russia is calling the shots (literally) in Syria, while Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia continue to fund various jihadi groups, and Iran operates freely in both Iraq and Syria. Hezbollah, despite taking enormous casualties in Syria, continues to add to its missile arsenal in Lebanon.

This is a far cry from 2011, when President Obama announced the U.S. was leaving a "sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq." An Iraqi non-governmental organization estimated that more than 17,000 civilians were killed there in 2014, double the number from the previous year and four times as many as 2012, after the U.S. withdrew its combat forces.

Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey have all been destabilized by an influx of refugees from Syria and Iraq. Lebanon, a fragile country of less than 4.5 million people divided into Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Druze, now has more than one million Syrian refugees.

Afghanistan was the "good war" in President Obama's narrative. At West Point at the end of 2009, President Obama announced an additional deployment of 30,000 American soldiers to stabilize Afghanistan and nuclear-armed Pakistan. Six years later -- 15 years after we got there -- American military leaders told him the Afghan government still couldn't survive without a continuing American military presence. Since the administration decided to leave a contingent of nearly 10,000 soldiers for an indefinite period of time, the Taliban has refused to continue peace talks with the Afghan government, and we're looking at another bloody summer. Terrorist bombs in Pakistan are a daily occurrence.

Libya was supposed to be a test of our "responsibility to protect." It also had, from the President's point of view, the benefit of "leading from behind" and having "no boots on the ground." After successfully ousting Moammar Gaddafi -- who had turned his WMD program over to US and UK intelligence, kept al-Qaeda from moving from Egypt to Western North Africa, and paid reparations for terrorism -- the U.S. acknowledged as many as 30,000 Libyan deaths in two months of war.

The war in Mali was a direct result of the demise of the Gaddafi government and the raiding of government weapons depots by al-Qaeda-supported Tuareg forces. Only the direct involvement of French troops saved the government there. The deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone S. Woods, and Glen Doherty are attributable to the rise of al-Qaeda there as well. Today, there are as many as 1700 armed gangs across Libya and ISIS controls Sirte, a city of more than 100,000. The Pentagon is drawing up plans for U.S. military action to force ISIS out, we are again bombing Libya and there are American Special Forces on the ground.

Meanwhile, the U.S. bombed an al-Shabaab training base in Somalia this week, killing more than 150 members of the group.

Iran has come closer to nuclear weapons competence in the past eight years. And President Obama's abandonment of dissidents and pro-democracy advocates in Cuba, Venezuela, China, Turkey and Iran paves the way for waves of repression and bloodshed around the world.

The widespread wreckage and carnage that accrues to President Obama's policies and fantasies should disqualify him from further activity on the international stage when his term ends. But since retirement doesn't appear in the offing, he needs to find a "success."

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27 Reader Comments

Daniel-Andrew • Apr 18, 2016 at 01:23

Excellent & well written Shoshana.
Insightful, honest, provocative, challenging! The articles you have written demands something more to be done about the pawn Obama has been on the world stage. It is clear from the many crisis eruptions which took place since he was elected to office, that the agenda was another Brotherhood Agenda. Israel is an astute Foreign Policy watcher of her enemies. Israel has her watchers in place! Obama will not continue on the world stage by becoming Secretary-General of the UN. His reputation is worse now. No legacy for him when it comes to Israel.

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Lizbeth • Mar 14, 2016 at 15:24

First, glad it was Joe Biden at last arriving to meet with Bibi. They are very old friends. Joe possesses personal skills that Obama lacks. These are the skills that made him successful and popular across the aisle in Congress. We have giggled at his "verbal slips" but he truly respects others' views.

Latest news I found, Israel was okay with the proposal and Abbas outright rejected it. So nu? Groan. Thanks Joe and Bibi for trying. Oh well. And thanks Mr. VP for strongly publicly condemning the avalanche of Palestinian attacks as well as those who fail to condemn such behavior.

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Doc Cape town • Mar 13, 2016 at 05:43

Obama wants to force his opinion down the throat of history. He's going to try do it anyway, instructing the French to introduce a bill at the UN Security Council, recognizing Palestine in 67 borders with Jerusalem as capital. It would be a miracle, if Putin then vetoed it, as it would humiliate Obama and stop the Americans and French from making a colossal historical mistake. Ironical if the Russians come to the rescue of Israel. Netanyahu has to lie low and try avoid Obama for the next year. That's not going to be easy and he will be vilified by the Israeli leftist press and opposition. But he has no choice.

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Frederica • Mar 12, 2016 at 11:19

Historically many have tried to eradicate the Jews off the face of the earth and the same rhetoric is still echoed aroutdoor the world. All attempts although they have taken a huge toll have ended, still end and will eternally end in failure. The irony is that never in history have the Jews threatened to annihilate anyone unlike their foes who perpetually call for their demise with a venomous mouth foaming hatred. Perhaps it's all this hate that has hardened the Jews and kept them globally united.

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julea • Mar 12, 2016 at 00:11

So Biden took this offer to PA and they said 'NO' Who should he try to blackmail? Maybe cut off funding the terrorist PA/Hamas/Fatah.

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Frederica • Mar 12, 2016 at 00:06

When Obama campaigned under the banner of change, who would have thought it would be on the global as well as the domestic status quo? Not only have his progressive policies destabilized the Muslim world, he has divided his own country like never before and soured the gradual warming of relations with arch foes like Russia and China. Personally I feel his accomplishments are like a bell we can't unring.

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Helen Nuss • Mar 11, 2016 at 20:27

Obama doesn't need to be "looking for victory" as he has accomplished exactly what he set out to do when becoming president by causing chaos in destabilizing and demoralizing the U.S. thus weakening the western world in general. He would never support Israel.He expresses his views in both books he authored "Dreams of My Father" and "Audacity of Hope" regarding his derisions of "whites" and his admiration of his father's race, as he stated "wanting to emulate his father".
Only Trump can clean up the corrupt gov't that now reigns in the U.S.

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Kim Wilde • Mar 11, 2016 at 19:14

The resident of the White House will make all of America pay if in fact he gets JERUSALEM to be divided. GOD won't be waylaid in HIS plan for the "Promised Land" or HIS people. That is why the only place in GOD'S WORD that America is mentioned is in JER-USA-LEM .

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Harvey • Mar 11, 2016 at 18:09

Thank you Shoshana and Gatestone for a true summary of the 8 years of international diplomacy of the Obama administration. After he has gone hopefully things can only improve provided that Hilary Clinton doesn't get in.

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Lia • Mar 11, 2016 at 15:55

Seems to me we should all rejoice when Mr Obama leaves the WH ... and hope he does, in fact, do so.

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yehuda • Mar 11, 2016 at 14:07

Considering his past policies which have encouraged Jihad throughout the Middle-East and North Africa, there is very little question of Obama's attitude about Islam and Israel. Israel must make concessions to the "religion of peace". Israel, will have to navigate the "coming storm", as Winston Churchill wrote.

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steven L • Mar 11, 2016 at 13:01

Not just the US president but the democrats as well. Socialism and communism have piled up close to 200 hundred million deaths between Hitler, Stalin and Mao in perhaps two decades. Über Liberalism is the most advanced version of the left thinking philosophy. A world with NO restraints on individuals!

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DFD • Mar 11, 2016 at 12:33

I thought he already did and does. I must pay more attention

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Isaac Barr • Mar 11, 2016 at 12:26

"Biden Criticizes Silence of Palestinian Leaders Over Attacks" is impotent criticism. Biden should have told president for life Abbas that if stabbing of Jews/Israeli, ramming with cars, shooting does not stop immediately US will hold all, every dollar of, US support of the Palestinian. Criticizing Palestinians for being silent is laughable. Hope Biden liked Abbas Humus.Copy was sent to 5 senators including Cruz, Rubio, Sanders.

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thefinn • Mar 11, 2016 at 12:24

Frankly, it's not just "North Africa" I really wish this would be exposed more.

Militant groups and jihadists have sworn allegiance to ISIS from Malaysia and Singapore to South Africa. Raqqa stands as a beacon to any and all anti-western or Jihadist groups across the world. Boko Haram swore allegiance a year ago - they are now considered the most deadly terror group in the world (by body count).

The fact that Raqqa still stands is testament to Barack Obama's weakness on terrorism.

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Russell • Mar 11, 2016 at 12:08

Considering Obama's past record of doing maximum damage to peace in the Middle East and his radical Islamic (and thus extremely dangerous and anti-Israel) foreign policy advisers. It is almost a guarantee that he will have a sting in his tail that will hurt Israel and present a real problem to his successor, especially if it is a non-democrat. If Hilary Clinton takes over then she'll just be too happy to continue trying to be kind to the terrorists that wish to destroy the most key US ally in that region. These Democrats are on a runaway train to destruction and it won't be Israel that is destroyed. God said not and He means what He says.

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Elizabeth Lawson • Mar 11, 2016 at 10:05

For those who have little to no exposure to these tragic truths, and for those who claim to be too busy to read the track record of the Obama administration's foreign policy in the Middle East, can we not find a way - writ large - to inform all of the public of how dangerous Obama's policies have proven to be- and how lethal they promise to be in the very near future? The information contained in this article is nothing short of frightening.

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John Miller • Mar 11, 2016 at 09:41

The election of Mr Obama to be Head of State and Commander in Chief of the world's most powerful country was a decision taken by the citizens of the USA that changed the dynamics of world power. The country that elected this man to arguably the most powerful position in world politics is in denial about the truth of this man. He was brought up by a Muslim fundamentalist who hated the western democracies and an atheistic mother who moulded and shaped his character. These are facts that can easily be ascertained. Go to you-tube and search "Barak Obama - My Muslim Faith". He plainly makes the confession but under the prompting of a sympathetic interviewer, swiftly corrects the statement, referring instead to his "Christian faith". Has anyone before or since made such a "slip of the tongue"? Therein lies the key to Mr Obama's attitude to Christianity, Israel, Islam and the inward conviction that has shaped his life and by which he has sought to shape the policies of a nation that originally was created to give Christians a land where they could freely worship the one true God, not a false god, a false prophet and the imposition of sharia law and its unrighteous edicts.

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Shuali John Miller • Mar 27, 2016 at 20:07

How in heaven's name could the American electorate TWICE put this Taquia spouting phony into the POTUS position? He goes to a baseball game and wears a Che Guevarra T -shirt while Brussels is attacked and many are killed by ISIS operatives. Still no reaction from the paralyzed and fearful American electorate. As a parallel issue how could the Canadian electorate elect a Muslim sympathizing useful idiot like Trudeau? It blows my mind!!

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DockyWocky • Mar 11, 2016 at 08:01

Does the Sun rise in the morning?

You can bet your bippy he will.

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jeb • Mar 11, 2016 at 07:45

Is Obama an arsonist or not? The article writes correctly that Obama set the fires in the North Africa. If he did not actually set the fires he certainly fanned the flames. I have written probably over a hundred comments to that effect over the past several years. Those who oppose that view present themselves as isolationists.

While feigning they care about US military intervention is a unnecessary violent expression and criminal act, they have absolutely no empathy or care for the tens of thousands of people murdered by Islamic extremists to this day and the millions of refugees. Hilary Clinton hates our military and Bernie sanders pities our troops, neither is a strong enough leader to correct the horrendously failed policies of Obama. Genocide is a fact, Obama simply does have the courage to stand up to these inept tyrants, they continue to criticize GWB, a man who removed Saddam Hussein the worse of the mass murderers in the latter part of the 20th Century. Our troops defeated Al-Qaeda in the Surge and have never gotten the recognition they deserve to hear the DNC and radical left the US Army is Al-Qaeda.

Our society has very strong activist groups that are extremely dysfunctional and are so egocentric and self-indulgent that Obama has no problem manipulating the politics that are dear to his heart and define him as a man; Black liberation theology, reinforced and tutored by Reverend Wright, black supremacy, pro-Islam, anti-"white" America and hard line socialist not because he is an advocate of workers but because he wants to redistribute wealth he believes was unjustly earned and exploited.

A man like Obama who's attitudes extend to barely tolerating his own "white" grandmother, is not tolerant at all. No matter how hard Obama tries, and not very much, or how much proof there is of Palestinian malfeasance he is always going to draw a racist's conclusion he learned redundantly from Jeremiah wright.

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Vivienne Leijonhufvud • Mar 11, 2016 at 07:35

It is far more likely Obama will go down in History as a sympathizer of the Muslim Brotherhood - his half Kenyan brother is a powerful innovator of Kenyan Muslim brotherhood. The worst President in the long history of Presidents of the US. The man has stirred up a Hornets Nest and the sooner he goes the better. Let him go back to law defending guilty thugs in Chicago and elsewhere in the States.

A message to President Barack Obama: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Mr. President, STAY AWAY FROM ISRAEL WHEN YOU SEARCH FOR A "LEGACY". Israel can take care of its own legacies --- and they (the legacies) are many. Unfortunately, the rest of the world resembles the famous BIBLICAL FLOOD or worse. Thank you Shoshana Bryen for the great article and thank you Gatestone.

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Dean • Mar 11, 2016 at 07:06

Obama will probably be offered the UN Secretariat position in reward for his fine work destroying the world. The UN seems to honor folks with vision like Obama - vision to promote Islam, Communism, terrorism and totalitarianism. Watch out for PM Justin Trudeau, Obama's northern understudy, as that character gets going with his "sunny ways" philosophy where nothing is allowed to get in the way of positive pot-smoking attitudes - even nuclear bombs in the hands of Iran or terrorists with suicide vests in the streets of North America. Trudeau, like Merkel, invites as many Islamists as he can get his hands on to board flights to Canada and the USA.

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Solomon Balas • Mar 11, 2016 at 07:02

Obama is believed to have made a bet with Edward Said and Mansoor Khalidi at the Arab American dinner before he made POTUS, that he was the only person able to destroy Israel. True or not, Obama has since Cairo speech behaved as if he was intent to harm Israel. The 1967 borders are indefensible, and the land west of the Jordan were occupied in 1948 by Jordan and liberated in 1967. The ingathering of the exiles after 2000 years witnesses some sort of divine intervention. Like Haman and Hitler before him, Obama blackmail as he might try to will not succeed to wipe out the Jews.

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Marcel Klapisch • Mar 11, 2016 at 06:01

...and what about the RED LINES that Obama was supposed to prevent from crossing?